Spring is here which means warmer days as well as lighter mornings and evenings. If you’re sick of the daily commute by tube, now is a perfect time to consider switching to two wheels.

A scooter or motorbike makes a lot of sense for City commuters; riders are allowed to use bus lanes which means they can zip through traffic snarl-ups. Motorbikes and scooters are also much cheaper to run than most cars. In London, motorbikes and scooters are exempt from the congestion charge and parking costs just £1 per day in designated bays.

Just parking a bike in London can lead to damage.

New riders in particular though, are often nervous about toppling over when manoeuvring at low speed, and that’s where a crash protection kit for your bike makes a lot of sense.

Even just a stationary ‘topple-over’ while trying to get your bike out from being wedged in a motorbike parking bay can be extremely costly in terms of replacing a scratched fairing or dented tank.

A crash protection kit for your bike could be the answer.

R&G are the UK’s No. 1 provider of motorcycle crash protection kits. Each crash protection ‘kit’ is designed to fit a specific model of bike or scooter, comprising of a number of elements that protect key areas of the bike if it gets dropped.

Tough plastic ‘crash bungs’ bolt to the frame and offer protection to the fairing and frame rails in the event of a topple, while a similar arrangement fixes to the front and rear wheel spindles to protect the swingarm and forks respectively. R&G also provide Engine case covers which are crafted from 4mm polypropylene, which offer excellent impact and abrasion resistance to protect the engine in the event of a topple-over or accident.

Caption: R&G Crash protection kits are made from top quality materials.

The Research & Development team at R&G analyse the shape and profile of every bike that they provide crash kits for to ensure that all of the key components of the bike are afforded protection in the event of a fall.

So the question is, do they work?

We didn’t want to have to put them to the test, but we know a man who has.

Brent Gladwin, is the owner of a top-flight British Superbike race team - Team WD40. Along with many other BSB teams, he fits R&G crash kits to his race bikes to protect against costly damage in the event of racing accidents.

Brent said, “Unfortunately we’ve had our fair share of crashes this year, but thanks to the R&G crash protection on our machines, the damage has been minimal. The best example of the Race Series Case Covers doing their job perfectly was at Oulton Park recently, when Tarran Mackenzie crashed his Stauff Connect Academy Kawasaki during the race. Despite heavy impact and sliding down the tarmac for some 150 yards at high speed, the engine suffered no damage at all – which, along with the rest of the R&G items on our bike, meant we were able to walk away from a potentially expensive crash with nothing more than some broken fairings!”

Caption: R&G crash protection kits are used by top BSB teams

Certainly riding through London, none of us will ever get anywhere near these sorts of speeds, I think it’s safe to say that the R&G crash kits offer plenty of protection against the odd unplanned topple or low speed accident.

With the potential to save many hundreds of pounds by guarding against accident damage, a set of crash bungs could be a wise investment.

R&G also make products to protect other vulnerable areas.

For more info on the full range of R&G products, visit www.rg-racing.com and can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crashprotection and Twitter at www.twitter.com/RnGRacing